In My Veins
by MissyDelgado
Summary: Following the events of The Mark of the Rani. In which the Doctor & Peri discover there's one more present on Earth for them, one that could mean the end of the Doctor. Peri runs to the Master for help, but will the Doctors' oldest fre-enemy be able to stop the Doctor dying? Even if it means his own death?


**IN MY VEINS**

"You've never mentioned the Rani before Doctor," Peri commented, following him patiently on his weaving path through the village. The Doctor was distracted, rainbow coat flying behind him as he stalked, dark blonde curls in disarray, one hand thwacking against the other as he spoke his thoughts out loud.

"Yes I have Peri, keep up"

With his thoughts or his feet? she wondered, dodging the debris of a broken cart.

"Female Time Lord, Time Lady if you're from the Romana school of thought," he said brusquely. "Top of our class in science. Then the Master and me," he muttered. The lowered tone made Peri think she'd gotten distracted and missed the rest of his words.

"Go on," she prompted, skipping over the remains of someones' toolbox to finally be one step behind the Doctor. "What about the Master and you?"

"The Master and me what?" the Doctor barked, spinning on his heels to face her. Peri almost smacked into the kaleidoscope of colour. "No-one mentioned the Master Peri," the Doctor huffed, "his part is done in all this charade. He's probably halfway to Androzani by now. What you're missing with all of this chattering you do is that the Rani was very, very clever here. Not as clever as me obviously but still…a little more sophisticated than that monkey breeding experiment. Really, Peri, do listen."

Peri shook her head and focused on the scenery rather than the back of the Doctor's infuriating head. They'd been walking through the village for the past half an hour. It wasn't that big a village but the Doctor seemed to want to stop at every open doorway, where the faces of the villagers were crowded, and reassure them that everything was alright now. The sinister old woman – who had really turned out to be Gallifrey's finest mad scientist- was gone. Her prototype humans, marked with her chemicals, were slowly being treated in the next town over by psychiatrists. Eventually they would return to this peaceful village, forever feeling one step out of time with the world around them. He knew how they felt.

"What about that nice young man then?" the frail elderly lady asked, suddenly interrupting his train of thought.

"That's me Madam. I'm still here."

The old lady gave the son of Gallifrey a withering look and folded bony arms across her chest. She peered around his scarlet shoulder hopefully, much too short to see over it. "Not you. The one with the dark hair and that lovely beard. The handsome chap in the suit. You haven't seen him around?"

"No Madam," the Doctor said with infinite patience, "that would be the…the Master. He's long gone."

He always was. An evil plot, some cutting lines, an intellectual climax that the Doctor so very rarely got with his companions. See how long it had taken Peri to understand he was talking about the Rani? Good help was hard to find when you needed it. Then the Master was gone. He never stayed, but slipped out under the cover of some celebration. Never a goodbye, never a watch your step, 'til I see you next. Vale Arcadia and all that. The Doctor realized the old woman had gone back inside, in fact she'd closed the door rudely in his face.

"Come on Doctor," his companion ordered, laying a small hand into the crook of his arm. He looked into her upturned, trusting face.

"Of course. Lead on Peri," he urged, being careful to make his footsteps deliberately smaller so as to allow Peri to take the lead. They found their way back to the Tardis, where she stood partially hidden by the wooden supports and beams of a barn. The Doctor patted his coat for the key, muttering. He took the key Peri was holding and slipped it into the lock. The infinite, delicate hum of the Tardis changed in greeting as they stepped inside the control room. The Doctor stopped suddenly, staring around the Tardis with the growing certainty that something was very wrong. "You haven't been alone have you girl?" he asked. The Tardis whined in response.

Peri looped the opposite way around the console room, checking with him. "Nothing looks out of place Doctor. Is anything missing?"

A practiced eye ran over every switch, every button, every inch of that beloved room. Nothing was missing. Something was added. "There," he urged, pointing to the doorway leading into the corridors of the Tardis. A small jar had been placed on the floor, where it could be easily crushed underfoot if you weren't watching. The Doctor bent, scooping the jar into his hands and holding it up to the light. "Look at that!" he exclaimed, holding the jar out to Peri. She came closer, to see a small fish, no bigger than her clenched fist, trapped in the jar. It swam in a tiny amount of water and looked deeply unhappy in only the way a fish can.

"The poor thing!" she exclaimed, "you have a fish tank somewhere in the 35th storeroom Doctor I'm sure. I saw it the other night when I was…"

"Peri!" the Doctor cut over her babbling in a slightly incredulous tone, "Don't you realise what kind of creature this…wait, what were you doing in the 35th storeroom?" He had personal belongings he'd rather not have his Companions see in there. Belongings between himself and another certain Time Lord. Sometimes…sometimes he liked to.."You're not to go in there again Peri. And no, there isn't a fish tank in there. You're thinking of the 39th. Why would I even have a fish tank?" His racing speech slowed as he took in the fish inside the jar.

Alerted to the presence of possible predators, the fish had engaged its natural defence mode. The small gills and mouth Peri had observed were now three times their size. Its mouth had become an open maw of needles, glistening in the water. It seemed to strain at the confines of the glass jar. "This is a Traxiformallinramportine" the Doctor explained.

"A what?" He grinned ruefully in her direction, lips tweaking upwards. She loved that amused smile and found herself grinning back in response.

"Yes, it is a bit of a mouthful. We generally just call it the T fish." He tapped the glass with a long finger. The mouth opened still further in response, a dark blue ink like liquid seeming to drip from the tens of needles gathered in the creatures' mouth. "Those teeth you see drip poison into its' victim's bloodstream. Not just a little either. 4000 milligrams of nerve toxin in one scratch." Peri shuddered, looking away from the creature quickly.

Peri asked what seemed like the obvious question "What is a thing like that doing on the Tardis?" A horrible thought struck her as she flicked a nervous gaze back towards the T-fish. "Do you have any more monsters hidden away I should know about?" It was bad enough when they had Kamelion, she didn't need killer fish creatures leaping out at her in the dark.

The Doctor half-shook his head, then paused, before finishing the gesture. "I'm 90% certain we don't, " he reassured, which wasn't that reassuring to Peri, "but this isn't one of mine." He'd been to this planet, 3 regenerations ago, eons ago it seemed. He remembered leaving extremely quickly too. "It's marvellous," he remarked, navy blue eyes roaming over the delicate, piercing needles of the T-fish's open maw. "A natural assassin," he added. Rather like...he blinked, bringing his attention back to the creature. "No, this isn't one of mine. I didn't put this on the Tardis."

"Who did then?" Peri exclaimed.

The Doctor gave her a fond but exasperated look. "It wasn't you, obviously. Nor me. That leaves either the Master or the Rani," he explained, tapping softly with a finger on her limited human head.

"It was the Master then," Peri stated simply. The Doctor looked up sharply from the glass jar, his eyes unexpectedly dark.

"What makes you say that?"

"It's his calling card isn't it? Being evil. Who else would leave an alien fish that tries to kill you with poisonous chemicals in your Tardis? This is because you foiled his plan with the Rani, payback for saving the world," the Doctor shook his head. It wasn't the Master's calling card.

"You don't know him," he muttered quietly. It was too sloppy, too many ways it could go wrong. There would be no way for the Master to control what happened once the T-fish was in the Tardis, that alone was proof the Master wasn't behind this. The Master would never lose control. And they had danced with death and each other countless times over their years, but the Master had the decency to try and kill you to your face.

There was something else about the T-fish that told him it wasn't the Master. The navy poison pooling in the base of the jar: a chemical naturally occurring in this alien being and 4 other spots of the universe. The Master preferred much more highbrow methods of assassination, usually involving control, mind play and a deep voice like honey over concrete. He blinked, forcing his attention back again. Peri was watching him, her hands tucked into her short pockets, where no doubt they would be curled in anxiety. "No," he said out loud, "this is the Rani." At Peri's open mouth, about to question, he added "The T-fish uses a certain chemical to produce the nerve toxin. The Rani was always top of our Advanced Chemistry Class on Gallifrey. Before certain questions began to be asked about her ethics and methods of science...no, this is the mark of the Rani."

"We just dealt with that!"

The Doctor chuckled, rolling his eyes. "You're a funny little thing," he placed a hand on top of the jar to prevent accidental opening and considered. "I'll place the T-Fish down in lab, in the safe until we get far enough out of Earth's orbit to release it."

Peri breathed easier, resting against the wall a decent distance from the creature, "Release it? Won't it die in space?"

The Doctor waggled the jar at her, "Space fish Peri."

He took a few steps backwards, intending to take the T-fish down to the lab. Perhaps, when he couldn't sleep tonight, like most nights, he'd see about making an antidote to the deadly venom. "Could keep me amused," he murmured. One more step backwards and he felt glass crush underneath his boots. Peri span around, only to see the glass jar holding the T-fish safe and unbroken in his hands.

"What...DOCTOR!" she screamed. He followed the pointing hand to see two other glass jars, one either side of the Tardis doorway. Safely hidden, right up until he'd stepped backwards and crushed one under his foot. He scanned for the T-fish, but in that split second saw nothing on the floor other than the navy liquid and water. "DOCTOR LOOK OUT!" Peri screamed, swinging a broom at him in an attempt to knock...knock what off? Where had she found a broom anyway?

Then he felt a sensation like a thousand needles at once piercing his wrist. Fire spread out instantly, in his arm, his jaw, a burning behind his eyes. What seemed like an inferno clenched at his throat. With a thud in both his hearts he realised the 2nd T-fish had latched onto his wrist and attacked. A wheeze escaped his throat. "Peri," he must keep Peri away from the creatures, musn't let Peri get hurt. His thoughts came like treacle. The Doctor felt his respiratory bypass kick in to compensate for the oxygen he wasn't getting.

A second burst of fire inside his veins as the venom recognised Time Lord pathophysiology and adapted. His respiratory bypass faltered, then stopped. Peri was by his side, holding onto his arm. She had screamed/was screaming. He couldn't tell. "Sssh. It's alright. You didn't get bitten," he tried to say, hearing his own words choke and slur.

"I...I...," she didn't know what to do.

"Always about you isn't it Peri? Very egotistical young lady. I told you that once bef...," he dropped like a stone suddenly, hitting the cool, hard floor of the Tardis with a thud.

Peri screamed again, kneeling by the Doctor's side. His tall frame lay crumpled up, his face still. Peri could see all 3 of the T-fishes. 2 still locked safely in their glass jars. The third lay dead by the Doctor's wrist, visibly emptied of its poison. She shoved the Doctor's bright coat up from his wrist, gasping at the oozing, raw wound she saw. Droplets of navy liquid pooled around its edges. The hand below it was turning an angry shade of dark red. Peri reached for his other wrist, placing 2 fingers over his pulse point. No double beat met her fingertips. Tears formed, blinking them back as she laid her head over the Doctor's chest. On the right side she couldn't hear a beat. The left...she could hear a rapid, now faltering rhythm.

"Doctor!" she yelled helplessly, shaking his shoulders. The Doctor's face remained empty of expression. "Oh God," Peri dropped her head onto her chest for a moment. She knew nothing about Time Lord physiology, or the fish. The Rani had been dispatched. The Master had gone. The first aid kits were designed for humans, the Doctor always said humans were forever falling apart. Peri started to cry. She didn't know what to do and the Doctor was not allowed to die. Her own world, not to mention the Universe would never be the same without her best friend.

Peri stumbled to her feet, wiping away the tears frantically. There had to be someone who could help, someone who could do something. She half ran, half fell out of the Tardis doors, into the bright and unforgiving sunlight. The path around the Tardis looked unfamiliar, she hadn't been paying attention as they were walking back, more interested in the Doctor's words and with the sure fire knowledge that he knew the way home. He always did. She sobbed out loud and ran left, towards the village. She'd seen the Rani sent away, vanquished and the Master had gone too. Hadn't he? Peri ran her gaze over the scene in front of her, searching for the Masters' Tardis. Til she remembered he had a working chameleon circuit and the Tardis could be anything from a tree to a fridge. Anyway, she huffed (because being angry was better than the fear and the tears) the Master was the one who'd left those T-whatever they were there to attack the Doctor. The Doctor had some kind of blinkers on when it came to the Master. He continiously saved the Earth from the rogue Time Lord destroying it but would never believe the same Time Lord wouldn't think twice about blowing him up too. Though...the Master had never directly laid a hand on the Doctor. He seemed to draw an invisible cage around his old best enemy...still...

The village was slowly returning to normal now that their menfolk weren't being appropriated by the Rani. An old man stood in his doorway, drinking a cup of tea with a thankful look on his face. Two kids chased each other down the street. A young woman was studiously brushing the debris from the bathhouse away from her front door. This was the legacy the Doctor left behind - a world that continued on. Life goes on. She choked on another sob. If she didn't find someone to help, maybe his wouldnt. Peri didn't even know if the T-fish could simply kill the Doctor, preventing a regeneration. It had seemed to recognise him as a Time Lord after all.

A sardonic voice behind her suddenly spoke, "What are you doing wandering loose without your precious Doctor, I wonder my dear?" It made her jump about 10 feet into the air. Peri span around to see the Master stood in front of her with a curious look in his dark eyes. They left her for a moment to scan the surrounding scenery. No Tardis. No Doctor. He towered over her by a good foot, folding his arms neatly across the black velvet jacket he wore, taking in the flowing tears and the devestation evident in the face of one of the Doctor's rather more emotionally stable companions.

"Thank you God!" Peri exclaimed.

The Master's face was impassable as he replied, "I prefer the Master, but God will do." Peri was torn between wanting to lunge forward and grab the Master's arm, physically forcing him to the Tardis and wanting to accuse him for the Doctor's current state. The knowledge that there was no way she could physically move the 6 foot 2 Time Lord kept her still, apart from the words rushing out of her mouth.

"Please! You have to help me. Thank God I found you…I was heading for the village to see if there was anyone who could help, but you'll be so much better," she begged. The last sentence she thought out loud. Another Time Lord was surely better than a human.

She barely heard the Master say, "I usually am. I rarely respond to demands Miss Brown. Why exactly should I help you? Don't you have a heroic Time Lord for that? You forget, I am the villain of the piece." The Master noticed that Peri simply nodded, still sobbing, fear evident in her face.

"You have to help him Master. I don't know what to do. I know you two are….but you never ki…I think he might be dying," Peri broke down then, wrapping her arms around herself as she considered what she had been too terrified to consider – a future without her friend.

The Master felt slivers of ice slide around his heart slowly. Theta. He touched a finger to Peri's forehead, sifting through her thoughts instantly until he found an image his consciousness shied away from. The Doctor, unconscious on the floor of the Tardis. The injuries he'd sustained in their latest encounter were run of the mill for them, nothing that would cause regeneration. The Master turned his mental attention like a scalpel in Peri's mind, focusing on the Doctor. He was too pale for a regeneration, almost bone white. There was no golden energy seeping from his pores. The Doctor wasn't regenerating.

"Take me to him," the Master ordered.

Peri's weeping halted, "You'll help? But I thought you did it."

The Master ignored this from the obviously stupid girl and spoke again, in a voice like thunder over the bright sunlight of the day, "You will obey me. Take me to him. Now." Reluctant to rely on the human, the Master turned the scalpel in her thoughts again, exerting enough control over Peri's thoughts to have her turn and lead him towards the Tardis without another word.

She was too slow. Everything was too slow. Not knowing what had happened stung him. If the Doctor had to be hurt, he would be the one to do it. After a few eternities stretched into those moments running back to the Tardis, the Master simply stole the memory from Peri's mind and overtook her as he ran, leaving her far behind.

He came upon the Tardis and laid his hand against the doors. The doors swung open almost instantly. The Doctor hadn't set the Isomorphic controls like he usually did if he knew the Master was around. All because his previous regeneration had stolen a dematerialization circuit and a few spare parts. The Master could hear a high pitched whine from the Tardis herself, "Alright," he told her, hearing the pitch change in response. He lifted a hand to close the Tardis doors behind him, just as he caught sight of the Doctor. He lay unmoving where he'd fallen.

The Master knelt, sliding off a black leather glove to rest two fingers over the Doctor's outstretched wrist. Nothing. The Doctor's skin was the colour of tombs in the Citadel. His hand moved to the Doctor's chest, his ear against one side, then the other. 1 heart with 1 beat every 30 seconds. Not enough to sustain life. The Master stretched out delicate tendrils into the Doctor's mind, then forceful sledgehammers of telepathy. Nothing. He hit only a grey, empty space. His respiratory bypass system had failed and just like the Master had seen in Peri's mind, the Doctor was not regenerating. He was dying. His face blanched.

The Master scooped up the Doctor, cradling the fallen form and stepping through into the corridors of the Tardis. He picked out the glass jars, two unbroken, one smashed. His black boots crunched over the fragments, until he saw the T-fish lying spent on the floor. He dug a boot into it viciously, feeling it tear and give under his foot until the body came apart. Navy ink splashed against the pristine Tardis floor. He sidestepped it, vowing to come back and burn every last scrap once he had saved the Doctor. Because the Doctor wasn't about to die. "What have you done old man?" his voice was low, gruff and worried against the Doctor's ear, the dark golden curls disrupting his view of the Doctor's too pale face. He resisted the urge to brush them away, instead storming down the corridor with the Doctor in his arms. "Show me a bedroom," he ordered the Tardis.

A door appeared to the right, the Master placing an unbloodied boot against it and kicking. It opened with an almost silent groan from the Tardis, a reminder he didn't have to quite kick the door in. The Master laid the Doctor on the bed, running the gloved hand down the Doctor's wrist until he found the T-fish's bite. Veins of scarlet red stood out against the Doctor's skin, marking the unusually perfect, even for a Time Lord, lightly tanned skin. He crouched to inspect the wound, spying a tine of the fish's teeth still lodged. Around him, he could hear the Cloister Bell ring. "No you don't," he hissed at the Doctor, worry twisting his features into something dark and lovely. "If I have to follow you down into Death itself and drag your ridiculously dressed self back Theta, I will not have you murdered by a ….by a fish. I have you," he said softly.

"The Cloister Bell!" Peri announced, the Master only just catching himself from jumping in much the same way she had.

"Idiot," he snapped, "bring me tweezers, an IV set, the contents of the Doctor's first aid kits, check his lab and bring me anything marked Thiazine." His bark startled her out of her tears and she nodded, running quickly the other way. The Master could feel a slight dimensional shift in his nerves as the Tardis helped her. It had been too long since the Doctor had last breathed, last spoken. It had been too long the moment they'd left each other back in the village. The Master brought his lips to the Doctor's, lingering for a moment against the soft skin, willing the icy eyes to open and twinkle. They stayed shut. He forced air into the Doctor's lungs until he felt his own respiratory bypass kick in. When his vision began to darken at the edges the Master sat back for just enough to keep himself from passing out, before attempting it again. The Doctor's chest rose and fell, but nothing else changed.

Peri returned, laden down with the supplies. The first aid kits the Master emptied quickly and precisely onto the bedside table. Most of the equipment inside was designed for humans. He swore in Gallifreyan under his breath and picked out an atomizer needle from the pile, placing it against the Doctor's neck, where it met the firm jawline behind his ear. His other hand closed the tweezers around the tine still in the Doctor's wound, pulling it free and stopping the continuous flow of poison.

"You did this," Peri said, almost silently. She had crossed to stand near the Doctor, on the other side of the bed to the Master, where she could keep an eye on him. The Master felt his usual rage stir and sit upon his shoulder, but said nothing, pressing the contents of the atomizer into the Doctors veins. "You did this," she added ,"you couldn't stand him winning. Not again. So you left those fish where you knew he'd find them. Where he'd try to protect me and…what if he dies Master? You get what you want."

The Master's voice was frozen, "Get out." Peri had recovered enough of her composure to give the Doctor's assassin a piece of her mind.

"Like I'm going to leave you alone with him so you can finish the job off! You evil…"

"You will obey me."

She felt a mental presence in her mind like a steel wall, completely consuming her own will. Peri felt herself run backwards out of the room with no control over what she was doing. The door slammed shut in her face. When she tried to turn the handle, she found it locked and barred against her. Peri fell against the door and began to cry again.

The universe rose and fell in the moments the Master waited for the two atomizer injections to have an effect. They were the Time Lord equivalent of adrenaline, intended to force the respiratory bypass to work and to kick-start both hearts.


End file.
